Miss Rainforest pageant highlights environment
It may not yet be in the same league with Miss Universe or Miss World, but Belize’s Miss Rainforest Pageant is trying hard to find a niche on the global stage. Some of the international contestants came into town today and stopped by for a chat.
Nancy Juan, Founder/Organizer, Miss Rainforest
“The Miss Rainforest Pageant is about creating awareness for the protection of our environment. We have the girls come in and they do tree planting ceremonies and they get lectures with different environmental groups and they learn a lot about what Belize is doing to protect our environment, and they also share with us programmes that they’re doing in their country for the conservation of the rainforest.”
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The contestants have been having a ball touring the country and getting to know each other…as well as their respective countries.
Elaine Lanzan, Miss Malta
“I would have to say that Malta is the jewel of the Mediterranean like Belize is in Central America. We’ve got a lot of history in our country. Our history actually goes back seven thousand years. We’ve got prehistoric temples, so if you have to come to Malta, although we are small you can still spend a lot of time running around the island to get to go to all the sites.”
The young ladies, who come from Germany, Malta, Ecuador, Guatemala, Columbia, Honduras and El Salvador and Belize, had their own personal reasons why they wanted to participate in the contest…and it had nothing to do with beauty or charm.
Katharina Sengfelder, Miss Germany
“The funds raised by the Miss Rainforest goes to the rainforest that some educational thing will be either done with it or it will go to children. I said okay this is something that I personally want to support, something that I like to do to just help a little and do whatever I can do to create some awareness.”
Erin Quiroz, Miss Belize
“At first I was really nervous and I really didn’t want to do it. I thought it was a beauty pageant, until I found out about what it was really about, saving the rainforest and the profits are going to help children, it’s gonna build a children’s home, so I ended up joining for that.”
The pageant gets underway at 7:30 on the night of Saturday, December twenty-first at the Novelo’s Convention Centre in San Ignacio. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
Tickets can be bought at Maya Walk, Love F.M., More F.M. and Belize Adventure for twenty-five dollars reserve, twenty dollars general admission and ten dollars for children.
